A Song of the Black Lotus Flower

 

 

 

Unknown to the world,

Blooming in the dark,

Is that black lotus flower.

 

Let's go into the question of what we need to do in case we are to develop ourselves into higher bloom, hewing our way to the universal law.

In this treatise, I would like to hypothesize the "black lotus" against the "white lotus" from the very view point of the universal principle that life itself has. And, in order to help it bloom, I will try to reveal the "path" a man of sacred nature would take, that is, the "black lotus" which comes into bloom by struggling along under "Tao," the universal law. In contrast, we can consider the white one, which blossoms by observing the instructions of its master, to the "high way road" all saints take.

 

1. The Black Lotus Flower

O, black lotus flower, continue making efforts to obtain wisdom, and be brave. As you kept taking your own way, and as you will keep taking it, O, noble black lotus, be the same walker of this way.

A man who thinks it better to be wicked unreasonably rather than to be a mere hypocrite. The culprit who disregards all instructions such as dogmas, morals, social standards, and so on with the seriousness of the adult and the innocence of the child in him.---- We call him a man of the black lotus flower.

A man who is free from the moral standard of "good" and "bad," and who is able to do "bad" as well as "good" without being troubled. The chaotic man who has both the "sublime" and the "ugly" in him. ---- We call him a man of the black lotus flower.

A man who keeps taking the path he has gone through untill now if he feels "hart" in it, otherwise looks for the best for himself. The man who tries to bloom according to his own nature in such a way. ---- We call him a man of the black lotus flower.

A man who knows the fact that the mere practice of "yoga" or "Zen" will still remain in a state of sleep without higher development of the life itself. The man who, torn between both poles, "Yin" and "Yang," continues to develop his own life into higher bloom with the help of this huge energy produced from the two poles. The man who is taking the path toward the perfect vacuity in this way. ---- We call him a man of the black lotus flower.

A man who breaks off all the relations he depends upon, knowing that they sometimes weaken him. The man who struggles his own way hopelessly in his solitude, but challengingly as well having huge energy obtained only when he is made to stand on the brink of a precepice. ---- We call him a man of the black lotus flower.

A man who can see that the "revolution" which leads to only the formal change of social systems or the replacement of one power by another is nothing but a falsehood. The man who is trying to come into bloom by developing himself in the right direction, knowing the true revolution would have its basis in the very life inside himself. The man who keeps satisfying his own will in this way.---- We call him a man of the black lotus flower.

A man who has the wisdom that he himself is not an isolated framework at all, but has the whole universe inside his abyss. The man who has the wisdom, having smashed the illusion of distinction between "self" and "others," that all the souls in this universe are no other than himself, in other words, they are the phenomena of the universal life itself as a whole. The man who depends upon the very will of all souls(that is, himself) to develop themselves in the vertical direction for their (that is, his) revolution.---- We call him a man of the black lotus flower.

The man who struggles his own way to help the whole universe bloom in these ways with the mercy of the universal law.---- We call him a man of the black lotus flower.

 

2. "Bodhisattvas" in the Black Lotus Flower

From here on, let us study the real aspects of the revolution we mentioned above according to three different separable aspects, and then reveal the role of the bodhisattvas today in this degenerate age when the teachings of the great saints have been neglected.

Concerning how to understand the revolution, beginning with the aspect of "self," the "self" should enjoy itself and needs to fulfill its own higher desire. This is because the blossom of life itself remains impossible for those who cannot know the joy of satisfaction.

Thus, the revolution must mean the development of one's own life into higher fruition, that is, the struggle in life for the higher being.

Therefore, we can never despise those who persist in the desire to develop their own life by contrast with those who help other souls at the sacrifice of their own life. On the contrary, we must admit that the real subject of the revolution consists in the former. And the most fearful thing for authority itself is never the contradiction among concrete powers themselves but the very will of those who are eager to blossom, ending with the total destruction of the order maintained by authority itself. That is to say, it is the very will of people who are carrying out their own revolutions.

In other words, they are people who struggle for their own existence in a trying situation, or people who love each other for their very virtue, or people who are creating something spiritual that totally transcends power and authority, or people who are eager to smash the illusion of "self" and to get out of this universal life itself into the perfect vacuity, where the supreme being lives. In brief, they are people who, by their very virtue, are neglecting and destroying all the illusions, such as a world view, established ideas, a standard of value, morals, social standards, and so on, which are usually controlled or forced on us by power and authority. The mere conflicts among concrete powers never lead to a substantial threat to authority itself.

Incidentally, let's have a look at "the people who help others at the sacrifice of their own life," as I mentioned above.

In this case, even if their deeds are perceived to be self-sacrifice by appearance, once we see the deeds from the inside, they cannot be "deeds only for others, putting their own life seconde." So long as we are put alive in this universal life and struggle to blossom, we can never ignore and look down upon our own lives. In the case of what we call "self-sacrifice," judging from the inside, we are to do our best to make our own lives vivid or to die according to our own stars, taking a chance on our own devotion.

Therefore, so long as we are put into the sea of life itself, in spite of whether to continue alive or not, we are all eager to live a vivid life for our own sake, not at all for others'.

Taking this into consideration, in case one is still deceived by the illusion constructed by "MAYA" into believing the distinction between "self" and "others," and goes on persisting in one's narrow-minded desire, it would be hypocritical to demand "self-sacrifice" only for others' sake, because it is only an expression of what we are to do that results from an illusion in the mind.

 

And now we must deal with the question of why some people sacrifice themselves for others and experience vicarious pleasure at finding others' success in coming into bloom. I think we must handle this issue from the aspect of mutual relations.

Those people whose sensitivity is great enough to feel constant emptiness toward this world can become conscious of the fact that all the souls around us, including inorganic matter, can be compared to the states of the unlimited waves or whirlpools on the sea of universal life itself as a whole.

Under this consciousness, the illusions created by "MAYA" will fade away and the distinction between "self" and "others" will become less important. And being considered unlimited waves or whirlpools of all sizes stirred by "MAYA," all the souls in this universe are to have mutual relations of aid to one another, showing the impossibility of developing one's life alone.

However hard one may struggle for one's own expansion of life, without the basis of life, one's efforts will surely be fruitless, because the development and blossoming of one's life always depends upon the others surrounding it.

Therefore, taking it into account that all we souls are compelled to coexist in this universal life, being connected together by mutual relations, so long as we want to develop our own life into higher fruition, we at first help others expand their lives into higher stages. Then, in that very process, we sometimes face situations in which we have to help others at the sacrifice of our own life.

In the end, observing from the aspect that the universal life itself is a whole which struggles for its own fruition, we cannot make a distinction between "self" and "others," and all the souls in this world cannot but become offerings of the universal life within huge whirlpools and big raging billows. As a result, in that situation, with the idea that "one becomes a victim for the sake of others" disappearing, life sacrifices itself for its own sake so as to bear its own fruit. One's will to struggle for one's own blossoming is common among all souls. For that very reason, accepting all crosses in this universe as one's own, the will (that is, all souls' will) causes one to take the Holy Cross on one's shoulder with pleasure for the sake of all the others.

 

For the reason studied above, it is hypocritical to preach "self- sacrifice" as a matter of course, something to be done in case one remains deceived by illusions. But observing the aspect of "self" behind the sacrifice first, no matter what the occasion is, we can always perceive in it the will to struggle for its own blossoming. Secondly, from the aspect of mutual relations with others, we can perceive the will to help others develop into higher blossoming at first in order that we ourselves can bear and keep higher stages of life. And last, from the aspect of the universal life itself as a whole, we can perceive the will that tries to lead one's life (that is, all life) to prosper, while at the same time strongly demanding "self-sacrifice."

Thus, one's will to blossom oneself comes to hope very strongly for others' blossoming in mutual aid. And as the life state of others around one develops and bears blossoms and fruit, one's own life also naturally develops into higher stages.

In this way, the universal life as a whole tries to develop itself into higher fruition according to the universal law.

 

On the contrary, incidentally, obeying their slavish desire, those who are deceived into believing illusions created by "MAYA" and making distinctions between "self" and "others" are bent on preserving themselves under their narrow-minded will. They cannot foresee a sense of liberty, that is, a more wonderful state of life, because slavish desire considers itself to be everything. And, even though they could foresee it, those who are haunted by slavish desire will envy the blossoming state of others, resulting in blocking blossoming in some cases.

This is because, as they continue to plunder objects at the bottom of this world where the law of material desire dominates without knowing the other law that the higher stages of life have, they can do nothing but confine them to the lowest world where they themselves live, considering it the same law as the one they live with at the bottom.

On the one hand, where the lowest law is dominant, the logic "to plunder or to be plundered" prevails. On the other hand, where the law in a higher stage is manifested, the logic "the more we give, the more we are given" or "the more we abandon, the more we receive" accompanies it. In the latter, totally different from the former, we have mutual aid relations to develop life into higher stages, so one's blossoming becomes directly that of ourselves.

If we look down on others' blossoming according to the law at the bottom, we will ignore the possibility of our own blossoming, which can be achieved only in the context of mutual aid, and confine all souls to a "black hole" of material desire. But this never satisfies souls, only leading life to spoil without blossoming.

At the end of this treatise, let's re-examine the path we should take, and expose it to the clear light of our intellect.

Though images of hell have been drawn in a degenerate age, we have a major problem in how to dismantle this slavish world, which may be conceived as hell.

First, casting the light from the aspect of the blossom the universal life itself wishes to bear, we can see that one has to go on struggling for one's (that is, all) liberty, having the will to bear fruit of its own (that is, all). We must rally the huge energy produced by all the souls in this world for the emancipation of this universal life itself.

Next, casting the light from the aspect of mutual relations with others, the effect is as follows. In the process for emancipation, we at first need to change our own will. In carrying out the revolution inside ourselves, we need to help others enhance their state of life. And in this reciprocal action where we help one another attain higher stages of life, we need to hold communities' or associations' festivals.

Finally, casting the light from the aspect of "self," we can see that one has to develop one's life as highly as possible. Emancipating one's own soul from a slavish state, one needs to enjoy oneself innocently in the heightened state of one's life.

Having these three aspects constantly, we have to free all the souls in this universe, including ourselves from this hellish world.

 

I'm troubled.

I'm troubled, so all are troubled.

I myself, that is, all are troubled.

 

All are troubled.

All are troubled, so I'm troubled.

All, that is, I myself am troubled.

 

One is troubled with all. (One is for all, all are for one)

 

With the help of the wisdom obtained above, the first thing for us to do now is to awaken those who are going to awaken to liberty, or who are to awaken to it. In short, we have to help leaders arise to change the social system. For that reason, being eager to create the occasion which gives rise to them, we need to continue to make such efforts.

So long as the objects we are going to work upon are a small number of leaders, the effect will not be evident at the beginning. But as more and more leaders appear and change their surroundings, change will become apparent, and people will be surprised at it.

We long for not a crowd of followers but leaders, that is, "black lotus flowers." For that very reason, we ourselves have to become not mere believers but the sacred nature that struggles to abide by the universal law. In the process of this practice, the domain of "bodhisattvas" existing inside our abyss will surely spring up unconditionally.

We long for a "utopia," that is, a "black lotus flower" created and grown by those leaders, even though it does not last so long.

It is this "black lotus flower" that blooms in this degenerate world of today, and it is this flower that is my ( that is, the supreme being's ) "dream."

 

Unknown to the world,

Blooming in the dark,

Is that black lotus flower.

The "Yang," at an extremity, turns to the "Yin"

The "Yin," at an extremity, turns to the "Yang"

 

( Both "white lotus flower" and "black lotus flower" are two alternating phenomena stemming from the same principle of the universal life. )

 

The very things we need now are the pleasure of developing ourselves, the festival prepared in the context of mutual aid, and the emancipation of life itself supporting all the souls in this universe from stifling worlds.

 

END

 

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